So far my design has been pretty successful. I’ve been doing about the same amount of exercise that I had been doing before, but it’s a lot easier to be motivated than it was before I had started writing everything down. When I wake up I don’t start wondering what I’m gonna do that day, and then start bargaining with myself about how much or how little I’m gonna do that day. Instead I have a clear set of requirements for myself to complete, and instead of bitching out on doing more, I’ll finish what I started because I feel like I owe that.
The actual workouts on my prototype also seemed to be a little off, because they were guesses about what I would do, rather than the type of exercises I had already been doing. For example 20 minutes of core on Tuesday was closer to only 12 because I’d do several good exercises to exhaustion and then I’d only be at around 12 minutes and didn’t see a reason to keep doing it. Also doing the ruck run is kind of dangerous and can result in injuries pretty easily so I made it lighter than I originally had it. But after a couople of weeks doing this I think I should have a good and consistent idea of what kind of exercises I should be doing every day.
I think next I would add more detail to the list, for example number of sets, minimum number of total reps. The counter to this though is that I like just writing “max sets” because I think a workout is most valuable if done until failure. Also I want to increase the amount of miles I’m running each week, and I haven’t planned out an entire week of training with a calculated amount of mileage since high school, and I think doing that will help me hit a higher mileage.
I think a wow factor could be adding something motivational on it. Maybe next to the harder exercises on it I could write down things like “get after it”, or “embrace the suffering”. These are kind of cliche, but when you’re in a really tough workout and you start thinking “They don’t know me” or any cliche motivation quotes you can find this inner strength that you can use to carry yourself through the workout.
I think that using the design process has really improved my motivation in keeping up my workout routine during the quarantine without access to a gym or people to run with. Sure, I probably would have done an equal amount of work had I not made the list, but it would have taken longer and not had the same effort to it. When you make plans to run with someone, or have a set practice time, or make plans to go to the gym, there’s not a lot of procrastinating and debating how much you will do, but when you’re alone and on your own schedule, it’s really easy to fall into this trap of delaying the inevitable, and staring at your shoe laces or checking your phone when you could just start the workout and get it done sooner. Going through the design process I found a solution to this problem. First by thinking about what I could do to improving my life, then by refining these thoughts into ideas. From there, I made my prototype and made the decision to actually use it instead of resorting to my usual procrastination filled routine. Finally I realized that it makes working out alone and at home a much quicker and smoother process, and it holds me accountable for the amount of work I do. If I cheat and cut out workouts, then I’ll feel bad about it and be more motivated to do everything that i wrote down, and maybe even go beyond by doing an extra set or running an extra mile.
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